Closer for the Distance
“Hello?”
“I can’t believe you.”
“Hunh?”
“There’s cruel, and then there’s cruel, and you have crossed the line! In fact, you are so far across the line that if you waved, the line wouldn’t even see you! It would need binoculars! It would need binoculars and satellite imaging! It would –”
“Minako?”
“Who else?!”
“What are you –?”
“You’ve sicked my own mother on me!”
“Oh. Hmm, yes I suppose I have.”
“You quit sounding so smug right now, you wretched excuse for a friend!”
“Now, now –”
“Don’t ‘now, now’ me!”
“Oh, come on –”
“Do not ‘oh come on’ me! You suck!”
“Well then, have fun being chaperoned by your mom.”
“I hate you.”
“It’ll be some good ol’ fashioned mother-daughter time.”
“Hate you.”
“No you don’t. You just hate losing, and I’ve obviously won because there’s nothing worse you can do to me without inflicting permanent physical damage.”
“Which is not out of the question.”
“But it is, because then I couldn’t drive you to school and you couldn’t sleep in in the morning.”
“Damn you and your blackmail.”
“Of course. Truce?”
“Ha! . . . I’ll think about it . . .”
“Take your time. Good luck, by the way.”
“Eh? Oh yeah! Yay! Thanks. We’re totally gonna win.”
“So I’ll see you Friday morning, then?”
“Mmhmm. Miss me already?”
“You haven’t even left yet.”
“But I will soon, and the mere thought of it makes your heart ache. You’ll probably spend all day sobbing into your pillow.”
“Well, I might have a little indigestion from the fish last night. Could we call that heartache?”
“I’ll take what I can get!”
“Haha, see you Friday.”
“Bye, Rei!”
“Bye, Minako.”
“Hey, Hino,” Rei heard from behind her.
She turned to see Ichiro leaning against the wall next to the door she had just exited. “Hi,” Rei replied curtly, deciding to forego asking why the boy was lurking outside the girl’s change room.
The younger student caught up to her and fell in step, making it plain that he’d been waiting for her. “So, pretty boring practice today, huh?”
She shrugged. “I find repetition relaxing.”
“Oh, er, cool. You seem like a very relaxed person.”
If Ichiro had been looking at Rei and not at his shoes, he would have seen Rei’s brow twitch at his unsolicited opinion of her character. She decided that nothing was probably the kindest thing she had to say in reply to that.
“Um, have you got any plans for this Friday?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
They approached the doors that led to the parking lot and Ichiro scurried ahead of her to hold the door.
“Thank you,” Rei said as she walked past him, slightly bemused by his strange behaviour. “Did you drive as well?” she asked, though she knew a tenth grader couldn’t have a license yet.
“No, but I wanted to ask you . . . um . . .” Ichiro stopped walking and Rei grudgingly paused, waiting for him to spit out whatever it was that was making him so nervous. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
Rei frowned, suddenly catching on to where this was going. Her mind raced but she couldn’t think of a good way to avoid the awkwardness that was about to come. “No, I don’t . . .”
Ichiro seemed to consider something for a moment, and then tentatively asked, “Do you have . . . a - a girlfriend?”
“No. Is that all? I have to get going.” Rei turned to flee.
“Wait!” Ichiro shouted, desperation colouring his voice.
Rei closed her eyes, sighed, and turned back to see her fellow archer looking just as distressed as he sounded.
“Will you go out with me?” he finally blurted.
The miko took a moment to consider how best to soften the blow, but had no experience with these sorts of situations and simply replied, “No.”
Ichiro looked painfully disappointed at that and Rei froze, sympathetic but unsure of how to convey it without hurting the boy more or, worse, giving him hope.
“Why not?” he asked quietly.
“Ah, well, I’m just . . . not interested. Sorry.” Rei scuffed her foot against the ground awkwardly, her hand fiddling with her car keys in her pocket.
Ichiro stared miserably at the ground. “Okay . . .”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “Um, I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Out of things to say, Rei retreated to her car. Buckled in, keys in the ignition, she sat for a moment, going over what had just happened. With a bewildered chuckle and a sigh, she scratched the back of her head and started the car.
Minako was pretending to sleep. With her earphones in, eyes closed and body limp, she would say she was pulling it off fairly well.
It was a couple hours’ drive to get to the city the national volleyball competition were being held in, and while Minako might normally have spent the time goofing around with her team mates, this time she wasn’t even going to open her eyes until they got there. The coach had threatened to double the laps of the gym for the first person to get noisy and her mother was sitting up front with the other chaperones – by Minako’s calculation, these were two very good reasons to just keep her head down.
Cowed into silence with only her music for entertainment left Minako no option but to daydream about Rei. The miko wasn’t what Minako would have chosen to contemplate – way too much of her time was already taken up by just that, but she couldn’t muster the willpower to think of something else. All her willpower had been directed for the past few weeks at not jumping Rei’s bones. Even when she’d crash-landed on top of the other girl, Minako had managed to rein herself in and force herself off.
Now there was a memory worth dwelling on – Rei looking up at her wide-eyed, lips parted vulnerably as if awaiting a kiss, her body stretched beneath Minako’s in the most inviting way . . . Of course, Rei hadn’t been awaiting a kiss; she’d been winded, and their bodies hadn’t been stretched against each other invitingly so much as tangled awkwardly but bah! Details.
Minako felt a finger poke her cheek and cracked open her eyes to see Kagura smirking at her. Her friend plucked one of her earphones out of her ear and explained, “Pretending to sleep doesn’t work very well when you’ve got a huge grin on your face.”
Immediately trying to school her features, Minako shrugged. “Whatever. I wasn’t sleepy anyway.”
She resettled herself so that her head was propped up and she could stare out the window. Kagura returned to reading her book and Minako watched the road rush behind them, staring idly at the scenery and shifting her contemplations to her newfound love of driving. Or rather, sitting in a car being driven, as Minako didn’t have her license and didn’t really see the point in getting one.
Rei drove like she drew calligraphy – efficiently and gracefully following the exact procedures required, her focus all calmly directed toward manoeuvring her car smoothly. This focus meant that Minako could get away with watching Rei so long as she wasn’t too obvious about it – an ability that had led to many a daydream creeping up while she studied the miko’s perfect profile and ambushing her with thoughts of backseats and frantic before-class activities and foggy windows. . . And then Minako would stare too long, Rei would eventually look over, and Minako would scramble to talk about something as if that was why she’d been looking over all along. Whatever Rei thought of her friend’s blush and skittish eye-contact she kept to herself.
Minako frowned. Rei kept other things to herself as well. When she’d told the miko about Erika’s crush on her, Rei had been shocked and then looked reserved and pensive for the rest of the drive to school. When she’d asked Rei what she thought of it, all Minako had received was evasion.
It proved nothing, of course, but Minako couldn’t help but feel her jaw clench at the idea that Rei’s silence might have been born out of some actual feeling for Erika. No matter how many times she reassured herself that there was nothing to worry about, jealousy continued to eat at her, so she resorted to trying not to think about it.
Instead, she had a myriad of other, more pleasing memories to consider . . . Like that one morning where they had skipped their first classes to stay in the car together and . . . work on Minako’s homework. Okay, so it wasn’t all that exciting, but there had been a moment where Rei had killed the car engine, unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to Minako in just the manner she did before ravishing the blonde in most of her car fantasies. A tantalising memory, but not as satisfying as some.
Yesterday’s hug goodbye had been satisfying in its own way, mostly because Rei was the one who had started it. The miko had dropped her off at home, only to get out of the car as well so they could “say goodbye properly,” the dark haired girl had explained, simulating nonchalance, and then reached out and enveloped Minako in a hug.
It was all the little, perfect details that made the embrace worth revisiting – the soft tickle of Rei’s hair brushing her cheek, warmth radiating between them, the breath from Rei’s nose against her neck, a heady rush of desire and affection. She and Rei were about the same height, but Minako had bent a little to press her face to the other girl’s shoulder. With her lips, she could feel the heat of the skin concealed by a thin layer of cotton, tempting her from beneath Rei’s clothes.
Minako’s eyes had closed without her even noticing and only opened when Rei was the one who finally withdrew, realising perhaps that they’d overrun the time limit of a normal hug by quite a margin.
Staring out the bus window, the blonde smiled softly. She was pumped for nationals, but she couldn’t wait to return home, to a place where she could walk down the stairs in the morning and find Rei waiting.
Tuesday morning Rei went straight to school from her house and arrived forty-five minutes early because she hadn’t had to wait around for Minako. She sighed, pulled out a book to read, and resolved to leave later tomorrow.
After school, she chucked her bag in the back, started up her car and slid into the line of cars leaving the parking lot. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, wiped a speck of dust off of the dashboard and realised how much empty space there was inside her car. Glancing at the vacant passenger seat, Rei sighed and flipped the radio on for the rest of the drive.
While sweeping the shrine she started whistling some repetitive, annoyingly chipper pop song and had to stop herself three times without ever having realised she had started up again in the first place. After the third time, she forced herself to think instead of the stroke-order for all of the most complex kanji she could call to mind.
That evening Grandpa sent her strange looks throughout dinner until Rei barked, “What?”
He looked down. “You’re shaking the table.”
She looked down. Her left leg was bouncing against the leg of the table and Rei realised her dishes were rattling. She stopped and scowled.
“When does Minako get home?” he enquired.
“Depends,” Rei sighed. “They have four games to play if they’re going to win nationals, but if they lose at any point, they’re sent home. They could be back as early as tonight or as late as Thursday.” Rei brooded into her soup for a half-second before looking up quizzically. “Why?”
The elder Hino sighed and shook his head. “No reason.”
After dinner, studying proved to serve as yet another bothersome reminder of Minako’s absence. It had been months since they had even studied together, and Rei frowned to herself in frustration, irked by her inability to keep the blonde from surfacing in her thoughts for any reasonable amount of time. Taped off and untouched, Ainoland seemed to taunt her with its presence, a glaring reminder in the corner of her own bedroom.
She sighed. Minako was sending her some decidedly mixed signals and they were going to have to talk about it before Rei grew completely confused. The blonde was happy to spend every morning chatting and staring at her in the car, but then she would hint at Erika as if Rei ought to be thinking about her. Minako claimed she had missed Rei during the months they hadn’t seen each other, but she had spent the time dating various other people.
Frowning, Rei dismissed her thoughts before they fed her insecurities further. She couldn’t understand the blonde’s actions, but she wasn’t going to speculate needlessly and perhaps reach the wrong conclusion when she could wait and hear the truth from Minako herself. And Rei did intend to hear it – the truth between them was a long time coming.
“You seem tense,” Rei remarked to Minako as the two of them, fresh from another round of Mrs. Aino’s teasing, got settled in her car.
Minako put her seatbelt on and cocked her head slightly at Rei. “Do I?”
Rei glanced over at the blonde before turning the car on and putting it in gear. “A little.”
“Well, I guess I’ve been thinking about nationals a lot. I’m nervous about it.” She pulled down the sun visor and took a couple seconds to check her reflection in the lighted mirror.
“Do you think you guys can win?” Rei asked curiously.
The blonde grinned and bounced in her seat a bit. “I do! That’s what makes me nervous. If we were outmatched, we could just play for fun, but playing to win is harder.”
“That’s true,” Rei murmured in agreement.
“What about you guys?” Minako asked. “Archery must finish with some kind of tournament, right?”
Rei frowned at a car in front of her that squeezed into her lane without signalling. Bastard. “Um, yeah at the end of the year there’s a competition. People are already bugging me about it.”
“Bugging you?” Minako chuckled and teased, “I thought you had them too scared to bother you.”
This time, Rei’s irritated frown was directed her way. “I did! And then you had to go and tell them I pulled the fire alarm. For some stupid reason they seem to think I’m approachable now.”
Minako laughed, pleased with herself. Rei ignored her.
“I bet Erika doesn’t bother you,” she said casually.
Rei snorted. “She’s the worst.”
“How?”
“She’s always saying how I’m gonna win the competition for sure.” Slightly self-conscious about revealing this, lest it sound like bragging, Rei huffed, “It’s now like she even knows who I’ll be competing against and I’m probably not even the best on the team.”
“She’s saying it because she likes you,” Minako informed her.
Aware that the blonde was watching her reaction, Rei tried to clarify, “She . . . you mean, like . . .”
With a smirk, Minako asked, “You mean you didn’t notice?”
Rei resumed scowling. Of course she didn’t notice. She didn’t care. Why was she being told this? Did Minako really have so little interest in her anymore that she would try and set her up with other girls? She was aware that she was being too quiet but, mired in confusion, a litany of unhappy emotions and her own awkwardness, Rei couldn’t come up with anything to say.
Maybe Minako was telling her this to try and gauge her feelings? Rei had no idea. The calculating way the blonde was acting was too new and unsettling. She was supposed to be throwing out careless remarks, giggling over strange things and pestering Rei just to get a reaction, not looking at her with that removed expression.
“Do you like her?” Minako asked.
Was she supposed to? The answer was no, but if Minako asked why, the answer would be her, and that wasn’t an answer she was prepared to give just out of the blue. Trying not to fidget or look as lost as she felt, Rei shot back, “Why? Do you like her?”
“No. Do you?”
“What a ridiculous question.”
“One you’re not answering. Suspicious . . .” Though her tone was playful, when Rei looked over those blue eyes still had that watchful edge which made her uncomfortable.
“Whatever,” she muttered and drove quietly the rest of the way.
Minako just stared out the window and Rei was consumed by her thoughts. This isn’t how it should be.
“You’re so hot. God, I want you . . .” She deftly unzipped the fly on Rei’s blue jeans, sliding them down slender, pale legs. “So much . . .” The streetlights outside cast a slender beam of light through the gap in the curtains leaving much of the room in darkness, showing her only tantalising glimpses of the miko’s body. What she could see was mouth-watering and what she could feel even more so. Smooth, warm and sensitive.
So sensitive down there when Minako dipped a finger to feel that hot, silken flesh she bucked and gasped, though her eyes still watched hers with that barely veiled uncertainty. So sensitive their stare was broken all too soon as dark eyes rolled back in her head and her lids fluttered closed, brow furrowed, bottom lip trapped between her teeth . . .
Her phone rang sharply and Minako was rudely jerked awake. She groped the dresser for her cellphone, grumbling and nearly flipping herself onto the floor before finally securing the ringing device and snapping it open.
“Hrmmph.” Her eyes blearily read 7:16 on the clock.
Rei laughed on the other end. “Oh good, I was hoping you’d still be asleep when I called.”
At the sound of her voice, Minako sat up and scooted until she was propped up by her pillows and the headboard. The hotel room was still dark but Minako could faintly see the outline of Kagura’s unmoving form in the bed next to hers. “You’re evil,” she muttered.
This prompted more chuckling and Minako smiled. Her heart was still beating rather fast from being surprised into wakefulness and from the dream she’d been torn out of. She rubbed her legs together, trying to ignore how hot she felt and the accompanying feeling of guilt the memory of that night brought with it.
“So you guys got there alright?” Rei asked.
“Mmhmm. It was a pretty boring drive.”
“Better boring than eventful when it comes to driving, I think.”
“Huh, not a chance,” Minako disagreed. “Give me icy roads! Two billion car pile-ups!” She heard Rei scoff into the phone and mutter some despairing comment. “And did you call just to check on me? You’re so sweeeeet,” she cooed.
A huff of breath made the connection crackle a little and Minako grinned, imagining Rei’s eyes rolling. “And to wake you up. You have practice at eight and I know you skip breakfast sometimes.”
“Okay, mother,” Minako sulked, though she was reluctantly pleased at Rei’s attention.
“Yeah, yeah. Just sparing you the lecture from your actual mother.”
“Oh, now you’ve decided to spare me?” she asked wryly. “Thanks.”
She could practically hear Rei’s smirk. “Anytime. But I’ve gotta go soon. I haven’t swept the steps yet and it snowed a little last night.”
“Drive carefully.”
“Changed your mind about the pile-up?” Rei chuckled. “I will. How you feeling about your first game? Still nervous?”
Minako picked idly at the bed quilt and watched Kagura for signs of wakefulness. “A little. Mostly excited though – I can’t wait to play.”
“Good. You love volleyball. You’ll have a lot of fun,” Rei said comfortingly.
“I know. Thank you.”
“Just don’t stare at girls in the stands and you’ll crush the other team,” she teased.
Minako laughed, smiling widely at the memory. “Well, you’re not here so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Good,” Rei replied simply and Minako pondered the double-meaning of her reply. “And good luck!”
“Thanks.”
“Bye. Talk to you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll call after dinner. Bye, Rei.”
She closed her phone and basked for a few seconds in fuzzy, warm feelings. Then she slid out of bed, clutching a pillow. “And you,” she said to Kagura, “quit pretending you’re asleep!” Swinging the pillow in a wide arc, she walloped her friend over the head.
Kagura grumbled and cursed Minako while the blonde skipped away gleefully to use the bathroom first.
“What’s that?” Rei asked, referring to the papers and binder that Minako had whipped out of her backpack the second they’d entered the car.
While Rei drove, Minako explained, “It’s a poem for my literature class. Damn. Who knew there was so much crap to decipher in each little chunky?”
“Stanza.”
“Eh?” Minako paused her scowling perusal of the poem.
“I think you meant stanza,” Rei repeated dryly.
“Whatever.” She returned to her homework, now jotting down the rhyme scheme.
“Do you need to hand something in on it? I can’t imagine you’d be working on it otherwise . . .” Rei jabbed, glancing over to see the blonde scowl and pout.
“Oh, ha ha . . . yes. I have a presentation to do on it for second period,” Minako admitted and then grinned guiltily. “I’m gonna have to skip first period to put it together.”
Looking over in some alarm, Rei asked, “And are you just starting now?”
She watched the blonde cough and hum, not making eye contact at all.
“You’re boned.”
Minako laughed in surprise at the crude colloquialism from Rei, but sighed and agreed, “Up the ass.” She returned to working, but not before watching the other girl cringe and make a face at her all-too-explicit reply.
“You’re never going to get that finished in time,” the miko said, partly to herself. “I guess I’ll help you.”
“Eh?” The blonde looked back up at that.
Rei sped the rest of the way to school and nearly mowed down several students hanging around in the parking lot. Upon parking, she undid her seatbelt and snatched the poem from Minako, who was staring rather dazedly at the dark haired girl.
Swiftly reading and rereading the poem bit by bit, Rei began to draw out the main ideas of the poem and its overall tone and mood. She plucked the pencil out of Minako’s hand and started to write down notes, drawing arrows and underlining passages.
Minako finally blinked and realised, “You’re going to skip and help me with my homework?”
Rei snorted. “Do you want to fail your presentation? Poems take time and effort to understand – it’ll show if you miss the main points and techniques.”
Silence followed while Rei concentrated. Literature was her favourite subject and to her it followed naturally that she could analyse poetry without too much difficulty. Carefully constructed with thought and attention put into the details, poems were like a puzzle with layers of meaning to unearth through analysis. Just as she was contemplating a particularly abrupt enjambment, she heard Minako sigh and looked up.
“You’re still so . . .”
There was a strange expression on the blonde’s face – not happy, but not quite sad. Confused. Conflicted.
Rei waited for Minako to finish her sentence, unable to look away from the blue eyes that held hers just as steadily. What was it in her expression? In her voice? Rei wasn’t good at this. For all that she could unravel the nuances of a poetic text, understanding emotions and other people was an art nearly lost upon the solitary miko.
“Minako,” she started to say, and what was to come after, she didn’t know.
The passenger side door was opened and Minako cleared her throat. “We should go work in the library. Someone will probably pass by and think we’re hotboxing your car or something.”
“Oh . . . Okay,” Rei accepted, straightening the papers together and getting out of the car as well. She grabbed her bag out of the back just as Minako did and as the two of them walked together toward the school, Rei asked tentatively, “You’re okay with me helping you with your homework, right?”
“Of course!” Minako grinned, which Rei suspected was a bit forced. “I’m crap at poems. If you thought I was hopeless at math, just wait until you see me in literature.”
Rei rolled her eyes – something she hadn’t had the pleasure of doing since they had last collaborated on school work. In some ways, Minako might never change, but Rei was still not convinced at the blonde’s sudden change of mood. It wasn’t until Minako smiled softly and thanked her for helping that Rei felt at ease again, pacified by the genuine happiness that sparkled in those blue eyes.
“Hey, Hino,” Rei heard from behind her.
She spun, pressing the shirt she had just taken off to her chest. This was why changing in public was so damn awkward. Why did people think she wanted to talk when she was half naked?
Erika was already changed into her archery clothes and looking up at Rei expectantly. She was short, Rei realised. One would probably call her petite.
“Uh . . . hi,” she replied and turned back toward her locker, hoping this would be enough of a hint to discourage further conversation.
There was a pause, during which Rei dared to hope, and then Erika hesitantly began, “I um, I was wondering if uh, if-”
“Could we . . . do this when I’m dressed?” Rei interrupted, dropping her hands to her hips.
Erika’s eyes jumped to her pale purple bra and then the shorter girl blushed and stammered while looking away, “Ah r-right! Yeah sorry sure yeah I . . . I uh, I’ll talk to you out there.” Erika marched off to the exit toward the archery range without further stutters.
Realising she had exposed herself more than she’d intended to, Rei blushed a little herself and quickly tugged her gym t-shirt on. Well, now she knew Minako had been right when she’d brought up Erika’s crush, not that it helped Rei at all. This was going to be Ichiro all over again. The younger boy was still shooting her forlorn glances during practice and blushing whenever she was within speaking distance.
Outside, she and Erika managed an unstuttered, fully-clothed conversation, though Rei noticed that the other girl was still acting a little nervous, her eyes darting about while she fidgeted with the hem of her gym shirt.
“Coach said my form is getting better but for some reason, my aim is getting worse. I was hoping you could help me out.”
Rei nodded and they went to select their equipment. “I could watch you shoot a few times and maybe I’ll be able to see what’s going wrong.”
With a huge smile, Erika nodded. “That would be great!”
They took up lanes next to each other and Rei inspected her running shoes while Erika prepared her bow and set her arrows into their stand. As Erika began her shot, Rei watched studiously, examining all aspects of her posture and technique. Her feet were a little off but everything else looked fine and she seemed to be sighting properly, so it likely wouldn’t affect her aim. When Erika finally released the arrow, it struck several hand spans from the target’s center and she turned to Rei with a pout.
“See?”
Rei gave a small, reassuring smile. “Yes. Fix your feet and try again.”
With an embarrassed blush, Erika obeyed and her arrow went awry once again. However, this time, Rei caught the small movement that was skewing the other archer’s aim.
“You’re exhaling while you release. I think it’s making your shoulders shift.”
“Ahh.” With a nod of comprehension, Erika strung her final arrow. She emptied her lungs before her fingers let go of the feathered arrow and the bolt met the board significantly closer to the center.
Satisfied, Rei set about stringing her own bow and setting up her arrows. Looking back up, she met Erika’s eyes.
“Thank you,” the shorter girl said genuinely. “I really appreciate it. If you’d like . . . I have two tickets to a professional archery competition this weekend. We could go . . . but, but only if you want to. I mean, if you don’t want to then that’s fine too . . .” She trailed off expectantly, watching Rei hopefully.
Rei hesitated. It wasn’t officially a date but she knew that Erika liked her and she knew that she didn’t return the feelings. However . . . Erika was really attractive, Rei realised somewhat clinically. Her features were quite pretty, especially her large, dark eyes and her build was slender and delicate.
What was it about Minako that set her apart from other girls? By all rights, she ought to like Erika but Rei was at a loss as to why she didn’t.
Here was the chance to find out.
“I’d love to,” she replied with a modest smile.
Once again, Rei was sitting in the Aino’s foyer, her foot dangling across her knee. Idly, she contemplated claiming the chair she always occupied in the morning as property of Hinoland. It wasn’t a bad chair – soft, stylish and just the right height.
Akemi Aino came back from the kitchen and handed Rei a steaming cup of coffee, explaining, “Minako may be a while this morning. We got in a little late last night –celebrations went on for quite a while after the game.”
“Even though they lost?”
Minako’s mother smiled and nodded. “I think they were just happy to be there. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it.”
“Mmm,” Rei agreed, eyeing her coffee.
“Would you like cream and sugar with that?”
“No, Mother,” Minako said, entering the foyer. She was wearing fluffy slippers with her uniform and her hair was still messy from sleep. Striding over, she plucked the drink from Rei’s hand and turned toward the kitchen. “Rei doesn’t like coffee. She just took it to be polite.”
Clanging came from the kitchen and then the tap, followed by a click, and Rei realised Minako had started the kettle to boil. “Do we really have time for tea?” she asked when the young blonde re-entered the room.
“Yes, we do. We’re skipping our morning classes,” she stated.
Minako’s mother took this as her cue to leave. “I’ll just be downstairs,” she said breezily, “doing laundry and such, completely oblivious to what you’re up to. Bye, Rei.”
“Er, bye,” Rei replied, wondering bemusedly if Minako realised how amazingly slack her mother was.
“Come,” Minako beckoned. “Watch me eat breakfast. Oh, but first . . .” She spun and stuck out her right hand. “Truce. I really can’t compete with evil that knows no bounds. I mean, to sic my own mother on me. Diabolical.”
They shook – Minako all business, Rei lightly amused – and then settled in the kitchen. Minako put bread in the toaster, pulled out some jams, and sat down next to Rei.
Rei gave her a strange look. “I expected you to be a little more er . . . furious about your mother being your chaperone. Instead you offer me a truce? You must be going soft already, Aino.”
Minako smiled sweetly. “Consider it punishment in advance for what you’re going to go through some fine evening this week.”
“Eheh . . .” Rei wanted to hang her head and shake it. Of course there was a catch. “And what might that be?”
“Dinner with my parents.” Minako flipped her eyebrows up and down.
“Ah . . .” was all she could think to say. Meet the parents – wasn’t that a couply thing to do? Was she going to be grilled? Get stink-eye from Minako’s father? The what-are-your-intentions-concerning-my-daughter question? “When?” she croaked.
The blonde’s lips curled into a darkly amused grin. “I still have to talk to papa about that – he’s quite a busy man but he’s taking time off work for this, you know.”
“Really?” Rei looked over the kettle, hoping it would boil quickly. She was starting to feel parched. “He doesn’t have to do that.”
Minako lightly waved this away. “No, no, he likes to keep informed on who I’m hanging around with – get a measure of their character and all that.”
“And if he doesn’t approve?” Rei queried, not missing the fact that Minako was enjoying her growing fear of impending doom.
The blonde just smiled and shrugged innocently.
“Some truce,” the miko muttered.
“Give your Mii black hair. Here.” Minako put her hairbrush down and grabbed Rei’s hand, moving the controller so that it selected the proper hair colour. She let go promptly afterward, her actions and their timing measured to allow her to enjoy the secret thrill she felt at having Rei’s hand underneath her own without making it obvious.
Minako returned to tending to her hair, tying some of it back with a ribbon and checking her bangs in the mirror, while Rei sat on her bed and created her Mii. Minako enjoyed the amused expression on the miko’s face while she got the hang of using the controller. It was obvious she didn’t play video games, but she wasn’t completely hopeless about it. As with most subjects, Rei was quick to catch on. If their new friendship worked out, Minako could see it might be possible to turn her into decent competition.
“Now what do I do with this hideous replica of myself?” Rei asked, waving the Wii controller around.
“Now you play something. Pick a sport – try tennis,” she advised.
“Eh…” Rei looked blankly at the screen, unsure of which button to press.
Minako grinned and grabbed the second controller, swapping it with the one in Rei’s hand. “You can have first controller when you’re not such a noob.”
There was silence where Minako had expected a scathing retort. Turning to Rei, she saw the miko looking off with a confused frown.
Noticing the blonde’s attention, she asked, “What is a ‘noob’?”
Her confused frown only deepened when Minako laughed at her without answering the question. Rei opened her mouth to emphatically restate it when noises on the TV distracted her. Tennis turned out to be rather amusing once she got the hang of swinging her arm around. The way the little bobble-headed character flailed around when it swung at the ball was mildly hilarious.
Eventually, Rei noticed that Minako was subtly paying more attention to her than the game, though she was still winning which was slightly infuriating.
“Something on your mind?” she prompted bluntly when the match was over.
Minako smiled sheepishly and then steeled her features with resolve. “About what happened the night . . . the night I had my party, I’m sorry.”
The blonde knew that the apology had to seem like it was coming completely out of the blue but sitting in her room next to Rei with everything feeling so right and normal, Minako felt compelled to apologise for the one time she hadn’t brought Rei to her room. The next few seconds where she waited in silence as Rei digested the sudden shift to a subject they had both been avoiding were the longest most painfully nervous seconds of her life.
Finally, Rei frowned a little. “You’re apologising for . . . that? You didn’t make me do anything, Minako. You were the drunk one.”
Minako winced a little but clarified, “I know, but I didn’t make it anything special like it should have been. I didn’t even bring you to my room. I’m sorry for making you think I didn’t care.”
She suffered a long, measuring stare until Rei’s expression softened and the miko shook her head. “I’m sorry it took us so long to have this conversation. I ran away. It was . . . immature and I probably made you think I didn’t care.”
Two relieved smiles flitted between them and both girls were reassured, though eye contact remained a shy affair. Too many questions remained but the topic was too new to conversation and awkwardness stalled the momentum of progress. It was overambitious to hope that all the words unsaid between them could come rushing out at once but a step had finally been made decisively in the right direction and more would come now that the first had been taken.
Turning her attention back to the Wii to move past the growing silence, Minako stood and rummaged in her pile of games. “So, tennis is fantastic, of course, but wait until you try this.”
Rei read the disc Minako had spun about with triumphantly. “Rock . . . band?”
“It’s official.”
“Eh?”
“Saturday night, you are invited to the Aino household for dinner.”
“Oh . . . Should I um . . . bring anything?”
“Nope. Just yourself and a smile!”
“Right. Is it gonna be like, er, formal? Do I wear something nice?”
“Haha, relax. It’s just dinner at my house. Wear pyjamas if you want.”
“Uh, I think not . . .”
“No? No jimmyjammies? Oh yeah! You don’t have any allergies, right?”
“No.”
“Okay good. I didn’t think so but my mum wanted to know for sure. She’s pretty excited about this.”
“She is? Why?”
“Don’t ask me, she’s crazy, remember? Two pickles short a dime!”
“. . . Two . . . Never mind. What’s your dad like?”
“Haha, why? Nervous?”
“I – no. Just curious.”
“Oh, really . . . ? Gimme your hand. Ha! Sweaty palms – I knew it.”
“My palms are not sweaty!”
“Well, not really I guess, but don’t tell me you’re not nervous.”
“Keh. I’m just concerned about what I’m getting into – these people spawned you after all.”
“My dad at least is sane, so you don’t have to worry about both of them.”
“So just you and your mother then.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Ow.”
“You and my mom are more alike. You’re both freakin evil.”
“Bah. You deserved having your mom on that trip for pushing me into the fire alarm.”
“Please, it wasn’t that bad. All I did was give you a little free excitement and infamy!”
“Next time, spare me.”
“No way. Oooo! Did I tell you? I’ve decided where we should go this Friday.”
“Be still, my racing heart.”
“There’s an expo on this week that I think you should see. Guess what it’s for?”
“Do I have to?”
“Psychics! Remember when we first talked?”
“When you asked me about your test score and your boyfriend?”
“Yeah! You were right, you know . . .”
“Of course I was.”
“No, I mean . . . I . . . I forget . . . Anyway. I heard this guy at the expo can touch things and tell you where they’ve been.”
“Keh, like that’s hard. ‘Let me see your watch, miss. Hmmm, I believe it’s been on your wrist, am I correct?’ Most so-called psychics are full of crap, not visions.”
“You’re a sceptic? But you can see the future!”
“It’s not as simple as that.”
“Huh, well you’ll see. It’ll be mind-blowing, I tell you. Mind. Blowing.”
“. . . Yes, Minako.”
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